Although video gaming, whether in casinos, in the home, in portable devices, over the Internet, or otherwise, has become increasingly popular, many prior video gaming apparatus and methods do not provide significant opportunities for interaction by users or players in the game being played. Previously, for example, video gaming apparatuses were provided for playing a predetermined game, such as either a card game or, more generally, a game of chance (e.g., a slot-machine-type game, Dominoes, etc.). Some such gaming apparatuses allow the player to choose from among several games to be played. In any case, once a game is chosen for play on such a gaming apparatus, the player generally has only to decide how much money to wager on the game and then press a button to “play” the game. Thereafter, operation of the gaming machine automatically determines and informs the player of the outcome with little or no further involvement by the user.
In some such video gaming machines, such as video poker game machines, for example, a hand of cards is dealt to the player by the machine, and the player has the opportunity to choose cards from the hand to be discarded and replaced with other cards. Here, too, the replacement cards are “dealt” to the player automatically by the machine. The player makes his or her choice of which cards to discard, and the machine automatically removes those cards and replaces them with new ones from a typically unseen “deck” or “shoe” of cards. Thus, using such machines, the player has only minimal opportunity for interaction in the game.
Inherently, therefore, prior games of this nature have afforded to players only either the proverbial “thrill of victory” when they win, or the “agony of defeat” when they lose, and have not provided opportunities for the player to experience the enjoyment of interacting in a significant way in the actual playing of the game of chance.